I saw an Organist that traveled with his Hammond B3, Leslie and a Drum Machine. He played for a local church and several other civic functions. He had a small trailer that he carried his Hammond B3, the Leslie and Drum Machine from home. He was great!!! Even if a church had a B3 he still used his.
My question is for any person that knows about Drum Machines. The Drum Machine that he was using was an Alesis SR16. I didn’t get a chance to get the details about use. All I know the sounds were good with the Organ and the rhythms from the Alesis SR 16.
I was wondering if this can be an alternative..utilizing a Drum Machine when we go to other churches that don’t have drums. How users friendly are Drum Machines?
This is information about Drum machines for those that may not know:
Drum machines are sequencers with a synthesizer component that is tailored to the MIDI note numbers specified for drums. The General MIDI specification reserves MIDI channel 10 for this purpose. They are specialized for the creation of rhythms by playing synthesized or sampled drum sounds in a predetermined order.
The original drum machines were referred to as rhythm machines because they only played preprogrammed rhythms such as mambo, tango, etc. About 1980 user-programmable drum machines appeared, allowing musicians to create any rhythm they wanted. The Roland TR-808 was one of the first and most popular of the programmable drum machines and the sounds that are particular to that machine have become pop music clich鳬 heard on countless recordings. Early examples such as the TR-series used a method of synchronization called DIN-synch, or synch-24. Some of these machines also output analog voltages CV/Gate that could be used to synchronize or control analog synthesizers and other music equipment.
Drum machines are typically programmed by specifying which sixteenth notes of a bar a given drum will sound on. By stringing differently-programmed bars together, fills, breaks, rhythmic changes, and longer phrases can be created. Drum machine controls typically include Tempo, Start and Stop, volume control of individual sounds, keys to trigger individual drum sounds, and storage locations for a number of different rhythms. Most drum machines can also be controlled via MIDI.
Stand-alone drum machines had become less common by the year 2000, being partly supplanted by samplers, computer software-based sequencing with virtual drum machines, and workstation synthesizers that have drum sequencing built in. TR-808 and other digitized drum machine sounds can be found on archives on the Internet. However, drum machines are still being made by companies such as Roland Corporation (under the name Boss), Zoom, and Alesis, whose SR16 drum machine has remained popular since the early 1990s.
The Classic Drum Machine for Composition, Recording and Accompaniment
As one of the most popular drum machines ever made, the SR-16™ has been used by everyone from songwriters to live performers to remix engineers as their drum machine of choice. The reason is simple: it features a great selection of 233 realistic, natural drum sounds, offered both in dry form and sampled with our incomparable digital reverbs. Our exclusive Dynamic Articulation™ feature enables a drum sound to change its tonal content as it's played harder for truly realistic performances. The SR-16 features 50 preset patterns that were actually played in by top studio drummers, not just programmed and quantized. You'll find enough built-in rhythmic variations (with A, B and two Fill sections) for composing complete arrangements, and you can create and save your own customized patterns and songs. Plus, the SR-16 also provides complete MIDI implementation, a footswitch input, flexible programming and editing features and velocity-sensitive pad buttons. Plus, it's so easy to use that you'll be up-and-running and composing new music in minutes. Whether you need a songwriting partner or an accompanist for live performance, turn to the all-time world standard in drum machines: the SR-16.
